Nas "Made You Look" (2002)

Album: God's Son
Label: Ill Will, Columbia
Producer: Salaam Remi

Everyone knows what you can do with the "Apache" beat, and its horn-played riff. But nearly three decades on, New Jersey producer Salaam Remi found a new wrinkle when he slowed down the tail end of the guitar run just enough to give it a heaving new menace.

The result was perfect for Nas's casually hollowed-out rasp. "Made You Look" announced itself immediately as one of the rapper's very best, a loving snarl that enacts lyrical hunger while deconstructing it ("Don't call the car 'topless'/Say its titties is out")—not unlike what the track does with its central sample.

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